Jason Axelrod

It's labor day weekend here in the United States, and what does that mean? Well naturally, the unofficial end of summer. So in honor of that inevitable end, and the upcoming equinox, this week's contest will be the swimsuit edition! This week, only official Soul Calibur characters will be accepted.

Last week's submissions have been gathered up; a lot of people submitted a large number of entries. I took what I considered the 2 best from each submission and added it to the list. Some people also submitted customization of existing Soul Calibur characters; I have decided not to include those submissions and instead that will be a topic of a future week.

Summer is coming to an end, and there are now a whole bunch of tournaments for Soul Calibur in the next few months, starting with the Tokyo Game Show 2011 during the weekend of September 15! While there is no confirmed tournament, it has been confirmed that SC5 will be playable on the show floor!

Next, we have T12 - Toronto's 12th Annual Fighting Game Championships on September 24 and 25. T12 is a major event just for fighting games, so if you're in the area, you should check it out. A few weeks later on October 7 to 9, in Phoenix, we have DEVASTATION 2011. This is the 7th annual event, and you can even get a discount off your registration fees using the promo code located within the thread.

Finally, on December 3 and 4, we have North East Championships XII; this is the biggest tournament we have on the east coast, and if the turnout from Summer Jam is any indicator, then expect this tournament to be our largest event till SC5. In the meantime, videos from Summer Jam are now available in a convenient playlist...

The hypest and most competitive Soul Calibur tournament in over a year has begun and its streaming live, directly to you! Throughout the day, as well as tomorrow, we will be running several tournaments, including: SC4 Singles, SC4 Teams, Old School VS New School Exhibition, as well as Soul Calibur 2 and various money matches and challenges.

*UPDATE*
Summer Jam 2011 is now over! Woahhzz from Philadelphia takes the singles event in a stunning runback! Full events are in the tournament aftermath thread. Videos will be uploaded throughout the week.

So last week was our first Fanart Friday; and I didn't explain the rules too well... my fault. Last week was supposed to be an emphasis on custom weapons; but a lot of people sent in create-a-soul characters instead. So I will only be posting entries which show a higher emphasis on the character's weapons themselves and this week will be all about Create-a-Soul characters...

If you send in a create-a-soul last week, resend your entry this week. Multiple entries will be permitted, however if we get too many entries, I will have to limit the number of entries per person and select the ones I think are the best. Also, try to include all your entries in a single submission. Remember, submit your entries using the "Contact Us" form; do not post your entries as a comment. Also, while the Soul Calibur series is rated "mature" with "sexual situations", we can not accept any entries with blatant nudity.

Moving on, I have selected 30 of the best entries from the past week... There is also a poll where users can vote on their favorites; the winner receives a limited Project Soul T-Shirt! Images embedded after the break.

Didn't get a chance to make it out to Comic-Con/EVO2K this year? Then chances are you didn't get your hands on Namco-Bandai's official Soul Calibur V t-shirt. But that's okay, you get another chance! Namco-Bandai Games is teaming up with 8WayRun.Com to run a series of weekly fanart contests!

So here's what we're gonna do... Every Friday, we will be announcing a new "fanart theme", and participants will have the week to mail in. The next week, we will announce a new theme, and also put up the previous entries in a vote. The winners each week will recieve an official Soul Calibur V t-shirt; and possibly whatever odds-and-ends surprises we decide to throw in.

This week's theme? Custom Weapons! You have a new weapon idea? Draw something and send it in... Entries will be voted on by the community; so you don't necessarily have to be a great artist, just be creative! When submitting your entries, DO NOT attach them as a comment; instead...

As GamesCom 2011 continues in Cologne, Germany, Namco continues their steady release of new information and artwork. While a few select Europeans are getting the chance for a first hands on with the game itself... (curse you, Kayane!) we're stuck here with screenshots and artwork only!

Images after the break... Oh Voldo... Why so Sexy?

A few hours ago, Daishi Odashima confirmed on his twitter that 4 characters would probably be revealed during GamesCom, in Cologne, Germany.

Probably 4 characters are going to be presented at GamesCom. Cross your fingers for your favorite character!

Click to expand...

We now know, thanks to an exclusive video at 1UP GameVideos that Hilde, Maxi, Tira and Voldo have been confirmed for Soul Calibur 5! GamesCom hasn't officially started yet... so stay tuned for more!

Less than 2 weeks away, and it looks like Philadelphia's Summer Jam 5 is shaping up to be the most competitive Soul Calibur 4 tournament since FSAK. While Big E Gaming events have incredibly high competition for other fighting games, its not often we get to see this type of anticipation for Soul Calibur 4, this late in the game's life cycle. More information here...

8WayRun.Com will be streaming nothing but Soul Calibur for the entire weekend and if you can't make it out to Philadelphia in person, you can watch the festivities on the stream. In addition to the team tournament, the singles tournament, and many other money matches and challenges, we also have a very special event....

Word on the news vine is that during the upcoming top 8 stream for Tekken 6 at Evolution 2K11, Namco Bandai Games International and @FilthieRich will be announcing a few new reveals for Soul Calibur 5! The top 8 stream for Tekken 6 will begin immediately after the end of top 8 for BlazBlue.

You can tune into the live stream of the Evolution 2K11 Fighting Game Championships at their live page: http://evo2k.com/live/. Stick to 8WayRun.Com as the tournaments go on for continuing coverage of the reveals. This post will be periodically updated as news is released.

In preparation for the upcoming Namco Fighting Games Panel at the San Diego Comic Con (the countdown on the front of 8WR is currently counting down till the panel); Namco has released some new assets and character artwork which confirm Ivy, as well as a stage without ringouts.

The most stunning of all this is that the male character silhouette that Daishi leaked to us last week is not Raphael, which I'm sure most of us assumed, but is instead a new character named "Zwei" (German for "two"). He also appears to be holding his sword in a "tonfa-like" fashion.